The Fail-proof Guide to Removing Grass Stains Effortlessly

Grass is a natural, everyday part of life. 

A child of Mother Nature, grass can get into your clothing, your pillowcases, your shoes and a myriad of other places you never expect it to be in case you have a playful kid. 

Grass stains are dye stains, which means normal detergent doesn’t have the strength to remove them easily.

So, how do you get rid of grass stains quickly? 

We’ve got a few tricks here that you can try.

Before you start rolling up your sleeves…

Always check the clothing tag before starting with chemicals outside detergent. Some clothes are more sensitive to bleach than others. Know that you’ll need to handle them accordingly. 

When working with bleach- always keep your hands covered and work in an open space- the fumes bleach emits are harmful to your bodies.

1. Grass Stains on Shoes

Clear skies mean wonderful days for hiking, beautiful days for picnics; a lovely day for a football game, or a day of hard work in the garden… your prime victim will be your beautiful white shoe soles. 

And god help you if you’re wearing canvas shoes! Still, you can clean everything – easily removing grass stains from shoes – and here is how.

Shoe Soles

You’ll notice us using vinegar a lot in this article. Vinegar is a natural, non-toxic cleaning marvel, and when used properly, you can effectively and painlessly clean a lot of things in your day to day life. 

1. Take a bowl, and add one-third of white vinegar with two-thirds of cool water. Stir with an old toothbrush.

2. Using the toothbrush, slowly scrub the stains, working on a single spot at a time. Clean the brush with cool water from time to time, ensuring that the stain doesn’t accidentally become worse.

3. If it’s a particularly tough stain, feel free to scrub hard- as long as it’s white vinegar, it won’t harm the shoes.

4. Wipe the vinegar off with a cloth- you’ll notice that it appears noticeably cleaner.

5. After treating the shoe with vinegar, pour some detergent onto the shoe. Give it a good scrubbing, and once done, rinse under tap water. After that, all that’s left is to sun dry the shoe, and you have a cleaned, pristine shoe, free of stains.

2. Grass Stains on Canvas Shoes

Cleaning canvas shoes is a daunting task, but easily doable. All you need is an old toothbrush, dish soap, white vinegar, cool water and baking soda.

1. Take the old toothbrush and brush off any dirt and dust collected on the shoe.

2. In a small bowl, mix water and baking soda to make a paste. Spread this paste over any visible grass stains.

3. In another small bowl, mix some warm water with one tablespoon of white vinegar and a bit of dish soap.

4. Dip the toothbrush into the solution and begin scrubbing the paste atop the grass stains.

5. Finally, rinse your shoes and check for the stains- if they aren’t gone yet, keep trying until they do.

6. Simply air dry the shoes once you’re done, and then show off your clean canvas shoes to the world.

3. Grass Stains on Clothing

Roughing up and tumbling in grassy fields, slipping and falling, getting dirt stains all over yourself- hey, that’s life! But your clothes do have something to say against that, now don’t they? Grass stains set in very easily- and are especially noticeable on white clothes. 

Football pants, denim jeans, people stepping all over your new carpet with their bare feet as they rush in from the patio- they all have leftover stains that must be treated in different ways. 

Note: Always test these methods in a small patch before treating the whole stain.

Cotton and other natural fabric

1. Vinegar

Here we are, back at it with our trusty vinegar! This will work wonders on most types of clothes- especially cotton pants and jerseys but always check, just in case. 

• Dampen your stain.

Rinse the affected area with cool water. Grass stains in clothes set easily with warm water, and as such, take care to use only cool water.

• Pour vinegar on the stain. 

Taking a bit of white vinegar, rub it on the stain.

• Pour detergent on the stain.

5 minutes after using the vinegar, pour a bit of laundry detergent on the affected area. After this, gently massage the cloth, slowly scrubbing away the affected area. 

• Let it sit.

Allow a little time- 10 minutes or so, before rinsing the cloth. The stain should be gone, or at least, should be noticeably lighter. Rinse and repeat until the stain disappears.

2. Rubbing Alcohol 

Isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, is a chemical solvent- you can use it to dissolve the green pigment in grass stains. It’s a very common chemical, used in most detergents, antiseptics, and disinfectants. 

• Small note: If the cloth is delicate, use a diluted mixture- 1:1 with cool water and vinegar.

• Dampen cloth. 

Wet the cloth with a sponge dipped in the alcohol or the alcohol mixture.

• Air dry cloth. 

Dry the cloth in room temperature air. After the cloth is dry, rinse with cool water.

• Pour laundry detergent.

Use detergent after the rinsing, massaging it for at least 5 minutes. Once again, rinse with cool water. The stain should have cleared by now, if not, repeat the process.

3. DIY Cleaning Solutions

While the two above mentioned steps work well enough, sometimes no matter how hard you try it’s just not enough. 

Provided that your cloth is strong and you can bleach it- this method generally works best with white clothes- you could try making your own cleaner.

For, you will need bleach, hydrogen peroxide and cool water.

1. Mix the bleach, hydrogen peroxide and water in a measuring cup in a 1:1:2 ratio.

2. Take the affected area of the cloth and apply there, massaging it slowly with gloved hands. Let it sit for about 30~60 minutes, though ideally, longer is better.

3. After some time has passed, rinse the cloth with cool water. If the stain hasn’t disappeared yet, reapply until satisfied.

4. When the stain disappears, launder the clothes as usual.

4. Grass Stains on Denims

Unlike normal fabrics, denims have different requirements and as such are difficult to properly clean and launder the usual way. 

Removing stains from denim jeans takes quite a good amount of elbow grease, and it’s not different this time either.

1. Take the stained fabric and wet it thoroughly. If you wish to use vinegar or rubbing alcohol to speed up the cleaning process, use it sparingly, and in a diluted form.

2. Pour laundry detergent onto the fabric.

3. With an old toothbrush, scrub the stain, focusing on one spot before moving onto the next. Don’t be afraid to be a little rough, denim can take a good physical tumbling.

4. Rinse the spot where you have cleaned the stain, and move onto the next, repeating the process until the whole stain vanishes.

5. After you have removed the stain, launder the cloth as usual.

5. Grass Stains on Carpets

One of the most common stains affecting carpets is grass stains- made by children returning after playing the grass, or adults returning after a long day of hard garden work. 

Cleaning carpets is quite a hassle as they can’t be easily laundered, and cleaning is generally done in spots- or rather expensively with a professional cleaning service.

Still, here are 2 ways you can clean them- without the overpriced cleaning bill on your hands.

Laundry Detergent

This is the safer, cheaper, but more time consuming of the two choices- and it requires just 3 things, a clean towel, detergent and water.

1. Locate the spot.

The first order of business should be to locate the affected spots and deciding on the order in which you should tackle them.

2. Pour detergent.

Mix some mild laundry detergent, about 1/4th teaspoon, in a cup of cool water.

3. Work your way in.

Avoid rubbing the stain directly. Wet a towel with the mixture to start working. Blot the outer part of the stain, slowly working your way into the center. Clean the towel from periodically, checking how much of the stain has transferred onto the cloth.

4. Keep going.

Keep working on the stain, blotting it with the towel until it disappears. This will take a significant amount of time, but it is entirely safe, and will not ruin your carpet in any way.

Ammonia and Vinegar

Another DIY way to clean out grass stains at home involves rubbing alcohol, ammonia solution and vinegar. This is a much faster method, but a bit risky in case you have a rather delicate carpet.

1. Vacuum.

Vacuum up as much of the grass stain that you can, it’ll make the cleaning process easier and ensure that no stray bits pop back in to stain the carpet again.

2. Laundry detergent. 

Apply some laundry detergent directly onto the stain. Press as hard as you can, rubbing it to remove the dye, or at least, as much of it possible. 

3. Rinse.

Wash the stain with tap water and continue saturating it, essentially blotting the stain. Repeat the process until the stain is light enough.

4. Ammonia.

Apply an ammonia-based solution directly onto the stain, and keep rubbing, blotting the stain.

5. Vinegar.

Apply a generous amount of white vinegar directly onto the affected area. Keep blotting the stain. 

6. Rinse.

Clean with cool tap water and use a towel to gently blot the spot dry.

7. Vacuum.

After the carpet is dry, vacuum the spot again in order to ensure that all stains have been thoroughly cleaned.

Fearing grass stains shouldn’t keep you from enjoying the warm summer months. While grass stains on your clothing may seem almost impossible to remove, armed with these techniques, no one will be able to stand up to your cleaning prowess. So get out there, and enjoy your summer!

Read here: How to Remove Hair Dye from Sink